My class & I have been talking about global
warming and the effects it has on our climate
over time. Recently, NPR, a National Public Radio
station did a story on carbon sequestration in
Norway. We are wondering what the long term
effects/possible hazards will be of this. Could
this solve our global warming problem? What
would happen if all of a sudden all this carbon
dioxide were to escape? Any information on how
this process works and the effects on the
environment would help, too. Thanks!

Question Date: 2007-12-18

Answer 1:

Well, to begin with, global warming is
sufficiently poorly understood that to claim to
know how to solve it can only be described as
hubris. We don't even know how much of it is
natural. We know for a fact that the sun has been
getting brighter over the past few centuries, and
that is heating up the Earth (it's why we came out
of the Little Ice Age). Nobody under stands the
Sun's cycles very well, but the Earth does seem to
have a warm-cold cycle with a period of about
800-1000years, and during the last cold period, at
least, the sun was slightly less active than it is
at present.

The increased amount of carbon
in the atmosphere released as a result of fossil
fuel consumption is no doubt warming the Earth's
climate, but we don't know how much. Sequestering
carbon by burying it in peat and swamps is
something that has been suggested to combat what
influences humans are having on climate, but in
practice, it remains a challenge. It's basically
the same idea as making fossil fuels in the first
place. If it backfires and all of that plant
matter decomposes, then the carbon will wind up
right back in the atmosphere, and we will be back
where we started. Can it be done on such a scale
that it will reduce carbon levels despite
continuing to burn current fossil fuels? Almost
certainly not.

Bottom line, we're a long way
from solving any of our climate "problems". We
don't even know how much of a problem it is yet!